The Longing
by L.Aguila
Summary: Chloe gets to go to college, live a normal life and build her future. How can she refuse? It comes at a price though: Leave Badger Lake and never to make contact until she graduates, for everyone's safety. As soon as she was ready to find Derek and her friends, everything goes wrong. Years of not having to contact the people dear to her had a bigger backlash than she expected.


**The Darkest Powers Fanfiction**

**The Longing**

**Prologue**

**Author's Note:**

**If you haven't read the Darkest Powers Series (T_he Summoning, The Awakening and The Reckoning_), then take my advice on skipping to read this one. I find the stories lovely, and I want you to feel the same way without getting spoiled.**

**Note that I am also an avid fan of this book series and I've read every single short story/novella that Kelley Armstrong has ever released. Elements of this story are based off the latest novella, The Atoning (which you should be reading right now if you haven't been yet).**

_Like what Kelley often says,_

_years of running and situations would_

_have affected Chloe's growth and personality._

_So if you're still hoping for the sheltered,_

_innocent thing Chloe is, she wouldn't be here._

_So, yeah._

* * *

Badger Lake, Three Years Earlier

College seemed like a good idea when the thought of it came to my mind. I'd have my normal life back, get a degree in Film and maybe apply for an internship after a few years. I'd be thrilled to taste that life again, I haven't given much thought to it in years, and maybe it's time that I do. Feeling the rapid beating of Derek's heart behind me makes it all seem like something I've forgotten about all over again. But being on the run after so many years can wear anyone down, and it didn't feel like it was worth being stagnant for safety.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate what I _do _have in a less-normal life like this. The exercise, the fresh air, and maybe just a little adrenaline driven by excitement or fear—I don't know which, exactly. But I do realize that after all this time, I wasn't getting any younger. I was at the age where I should be making decisions for myself, for the future. For supernaturals like me, I'd still be fighting my way into the future I was hoping to see.

"Lost your voice back there?" I felt his breath on my neck, his lips proceeding to nibble at it. His arm tightened around my waist, radiating heat while he's at it.

"I figured you were tired," I said. I find it more convenient having my back to him like this every time he's resting after the Change. It wasn't that I felt uncomfortable when he's stripped down to his boxers while we cuddle like this, it's the opposite actually, which is why I _had _ to keep my back to him while he catches his breath. I raised my head a little, just to sneak a glance at him and said, "Must be getting used to it by now?"

A grunt, something I'd always recognize as a yes. After the puberty smack down, Derek seemed to have been favored by Mother Nature a lot these days. I almost didn't notice the little changes in his appearance, as they never seemed to matter to me before. But now as I see it, his eyes closed and his face relaxed, his skin was pale and cleared up, his hair cut shorter and the grease almost gone. His chest was still broad and chiseled as I remembered it to be, but he looked younger, even under the dimness of the moonlight above it.

Derek pulled me closer and turned me towards him. I went for his lips. It had been gentle and tentative, not wanting to wear him down. At times of privacy such as this, the kiss would have been different, deeper or hungrier maybe, but as I saw the tired expression on Derek's face, I knew he wasn't about to find himself on top of me while his fingers found a way to unhook my bra. He's been hard on himself lately, trying to make himself accustomed to the Change, so that he could manage to do it at will. He's been getting much pressure from Aunt Lauren lately. She still looked at Derek as the wolf, an animal who could burst out one day and harm me and my friends.

I never saw Derek as the animal in any way, I always saw him as him, even if he was in his wolf form.

When I broke the kiss, he tried to chase it, but I moved away and smiled. "It's almost four in the morning," I whispered. "Aunt Lauren's not going to like it when he finds us all huddled up together half naked."

He grunted.

I laughed a little and touched my lips to his, but it didn't last for a second. I moved closer to his ear and whispered, "We need to get going."

"Apparently I'm not getting lucky tonight," he started to stand up and shimmied into his sweat pants.

Looking at him like that, frustrated but happy. Derek didn't have much when he was younger—living in a lab with no mother in sight, living a less than normal life on the run and having to deal with the long-lost family who was so eager to get him back. He didn't have much, but he was making the most out of what he had, so why was I even thinking of something a little bit more for myself?

"You're thinking about it," he said so suddenly. What he said wasn't a question, and it made me fidget, as I knew what he meant. I was surprised myself, as I didn't anticipate it. There wasn't a tired expression in his eyes anymore, only frustration.

"I didn't—"

"You want to go to college," he spoke again, this time his face was expressionless.

"I wasn't really going to. Sure, the idea of it is nice, but I'm not fooling myself into thinking that _I _could have a life like that." I waited for a response. Nothing. "I'm not leaving."

When he still didn't reply, I reached for him. I didn't know exactly what I'd do, cup his face maybe. Tell him that there's nowhere that I want to be other than be there when he Changes, or having to run around with him in the forests that seemed so familiar after all these years.

He shook his head, making me draw my hand away. "It's not impossible, Chloe. You _can_. Even on the run."

"That would mean me moving away. And cut off all contacts. And having to lose you." I gulped at the last part of what I said. It was true that it _was _possible for me to do it, go to college. Set out a life before me.

"_I'm _the one they want dead, Chloe. I could trust you to look after yourself, could I?"

"You're asking _me_ to leave?" I said. My voice cracked a little, as I never imagined Derek to do so. He wasn't the one who trusted me to walk outside of property and not spontaneously combust, or not chew me out for having to think about setting off on my own while there was no assurance that the Cabals aren't on a manhunt to find us all.

He shook his head while his familiar scowl deepened. "I'm making sure that I get to say goodbye."

"What?" I said abruptly.

"Your Aunt has packed for you earlier today. The Nasts are offering you education, and _protection_." Then he stood, without so much as looking at me, and took me by the hand. I entwined my fingers with his. I didn't want to say more, since I didn't trust myself not to break down and argue. Or cry.

We walked all the way to my house, where my Aunt was standing at the doorway, our bags stacked on top of each other as a van revved in front of the porch.

Time to leave.

* * *

**Hallo, prologue for now will do, right?**

**for those who haven't read any of the stuff that I write, I'm a little bit more of the third person POV narrative type. I'm still adjusting with the perspectives (Knowing that Kelley writes in first person POV), and my brain is still caught up with how I usually write.**

**But to those who do know me, you've always known that I try hard to keep the story legit. That would mean me trying hard to copy the author, I can't do that, but the writing is as good as the characters. And I _love _these characters.**

**See you tomorrow, then.**


End file.
